


Soil and Steel

by octothrope



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, Party, Revenge, Underage Drinking, there’s going to be a kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:21:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27098776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/octothrope/pseuds/octothrope
Summary: Kai helps Beomgyu to revenge on his ex.
Relationships: Choi Beomgyu & Huening Kai, Choi Beomgyu/Huening Kai
Comments: 6
Kudos: 49





	Soil and Steel

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t really know what to say but I want to leave something. Enjoy! ♡

Autumn is the chill season, they said. The breezy wind slapping Kai’s cheeks sharply proves the common ground is right, but that doesn’t stop him from fulfilling his agenda to go out tonight. A loud thud coming from the now closed window, replacing the whirring noise with a serene ambience. He shifts his attention onto the previously worn yellow outer, hanging behind his bedroom door. _There_ , now his white shirt doesn’t look too lonely.

Soobin successfully made him concurring to his plan yesterday with a bunch of something in exchange, including free snacks and lunch for a week straight; special for the former, whenever he likes it. _Great_ , isn’t it? If this wasn’t something that has been reoccurring in an unhealthy amount of times, he would be more than happy. Soobin has been courting Yeonjun for how long now? Probably more than a year, with not so promising outcomes up to this point. Yet, he doesn’t acknowledge his defeat and keeps insisting on attending Yeonjun’s party, while the courted one will always be accompanied by a new partner, every single time.

Kai doesn’t hate parties. In fact, the free food and drinks makes it so much better, but he has no reason to be there at all. Soobin, his one and only friend, will leave him to do his own mission to save his pathetic love life. He will be left alone in the crowd, munching on his favorite egg tart, hoping the time will pass quickly. He doesn’t like talking to strangers, let alone trying to make a new friend; thanks to his severe trust issues. He would rather stay home, doused in jolting down some hopeless romantic poems or blasted loud music about finding love and broken hearts at the same time until he falls asleep.

“ _Sweetie_! Soobin is here.”

“Mom, I’m 17,” Kai groans when he steps down the last stair, “once again, stop with the pet name.”

“I’m not going to stop until you reach 30,” his mom says before giving him a kiss on the cheek which Kai responds with an ugly shriek, then she turns his head towards Soobin, “take care of my Hueningie, okay?”

“That’s,” Soobin throws a genuinely convincing smile, “gonna be my top priority,” Kai tries his best not to give the older a kick in the shin for answering with a white lie.

—

The thunderous noise from their final destination can be heard from several houses away. A few more steps and they see teenagers sprawling everywhere across the yard. Rolls and bottles slip somewhere between their palms and fingers, a thick smoke lingering around them. Kai naturally stays away from trouble. He looks down on the grass, avoiding any possible eye contact because it’s a nightmare to be dragged.

“How do I look?” Soobin turns around, colliding his face with the younger, both shouting in pain at the same time, “fuck, it hurts as hell. I’m sorry.”

“Do you still want an answer or not?” Kai buzzes, hands busy rubbing his stinging forehead.

“Hell yeah I do,” Soobin pouts, eyebrows nearly meeting each other.

Kai sighs, but the fuss doesn’t last long. He can’t help but chuckle at the tantrum. His long and thin digits roam through Soobin’s disheveled hair, straightening it one by one until they’re back to their respective place. Soobin looks _mad_ good looking, especially today, thanks to the leather jacket and spooky makeup. He doesn’t get why his best friend sticks after one man and why it has to be Yeonjun, who literally doesn’t bat an eye to him. After all of these inner questioning, Kai will usually tame it down by clicking his brain of the fact that he has never dated anyone himself—he has no right to complain about his best friend’s unfortunate love life.

“Do I disturb something here?”

“Yeonjun!” Soobin spins faster than a beyblade after fully recognizing the familiar voice, “no, of course not!”

“That was romantic _shit_ ,” Yeonjun let out what seems to be an air projection of a smirk. Kai can’t see anything behind Soobin’s gigantic height and neither does Yeonjun. By that logic, Kai doesn’t hesitate to react by rolling his eyes at the statement.

Soobin is engulfed by a hug and Kai’s eyes meet Yeonjun’s. A smile is plastered on his lips and Kai returns the gesture meekly, not so sure of what he should do in their unforeseen first encounter. He didn’t expect to end up between Yeonjun arms seconds later, earning a squint from Soobin who finds out that the jittery greeting wasn’t all special.

“Wait, your name is Yoobin, right?”

“Actually, it’s Soobin,” the name’s owner raises an index finger with a cheerful grin despite the mistake—Kai thinks it ruins his bad boy concept tonight, but the dimple did it first since earlier—as if it doesn’t matter that he got the first word wrong because the last five are correct, “and this is my friend, Huening Kai.”

“It’s nice meeting you two,” Yeonjun nods, the smile never really leaves his face, “come, it’s better inside.”

Witnessing some drunk people making out with each other and an even thicker smoke in some corner of the room, Kai isn’t sure what Yeonjun meant by better, until he sees a mountain of egg tarts piled up in the center of the room. People come here for different purposes, and Yeonjun sure knows how to please them all. Kai sets his gaze upon his target, marking the location he will aim next.

“This is where I bid you goodbye,” Soobin’s hand rests on his shoulder. The dim colorful light accents his fantastic facial features, “as usual, I’ll fetch you at the koi pond when I’m done. See you.”

“Good luck,” Kai says right next to his ear, loud enough for Soobin to hear.

Both of them part ways; Kai torts towards the massive table and Soobin is nowhere to be seen, swallowed by the throngs. The big plate Kai grips onto is now stuffed with the love of his life, seven of them. After five percent of the massive beer junk pours down inside his cup, he waddles towards the door and slides it open. The gale welcomes him quite harshly but he still prefers to be there rather than anywhere else in this enormous house.

Like a cat being raided in its domain, Kai hisses at the sight of someone occupying his space before him. As much as he hates it, there’s no way for him to go back inside, so he decides to just suck it up and assures himself that it’s okay to share the bubble with the stranger, while hoping that no words will be shared between them.

There isn’t any, thankfully. Until his ears catch something that he suspects to be a sob.

Kai is well aware of what’s happening but his choice is to pretend that he doesn’t hear any of that, mouth busy chewing on his seventeenth bite. However, it eventually escalates into a wail, something that is impossible to ignore if you aren’t that heartless of a human being. Kai, although usually idle to meddle into anyone’s business, living up to his chivalrous trait, finally scoots closer to the boy. He grabs something from the plate behind him and pushes it near the boy’s face.

“Egg tart?”

It seems like his tears glands are immediately sealed. Not a single sound is released. His eyes’ focus now shifts onto Kai’s and their gaze is locked for about thirty seconds before the offered snack is snatched, being squeezed as hard as the culprit is able to. Kai feels like crying watching one of his babies meeting such a terrible destiny. The crumbs land soundly onto the boy’s thighs, tainting his shiny black shorts that turns powdery. It would be a lie if Kai said he didn’t look stunningly mesmerizing in it, nevertheless it’s kind of looking like the same thing as the one he is wearing right now.

The unrecognizable bits are shoved inside the boy’s widely gaping mouth. Kai finds it relieving that it wouldn’t end up being wasted in the trash can. He keeps stuffing and chewing in slow motion, from cheeks expanding twice bigger until they’re back flat again, leftover spreading around his lips’ area, looking like tiny stars sprawling across the universe. His slimy hands fidget with each other, no area in his palm stays dry.

“I just found out that my boyfriend of three years,” he hiccups, “cheated on me.”

“Damn,” Kai is taken aback at the sudden honesty. He lifts the cup for the stranger to take, “I’m so sorry about that. Here, have some beer.”

The stranger doesn't seem to acknowledge what hesitation is. The liquid swiftly chugged down his throat, some spilled down on his neck, flowing side to side his vein. His clothes are ruined, but his visual stays divine, unbothered with the mess going on.

“Thanks,” for the very first time, he pays a smile.

Kai swears his stomach churns in a very weird way.

“No biggie,” the favor is returned, brighter than the one he presented, “how do you feel?”

“ _Terrible_ , but the things you gave me kind of washed it down the pipe,” he answers, “you know what, I’ve come to an enlightenment that my shredded tears are stupid. I think we should celebrate this instead.”

Kai tilts his head in confusion from how quickly this guy jumps from one emotion to another. “huh?”

A confident grin is formed. It’s like the sadness was taken over by something stronger that drives him almost mad. He grabs Kai’s hand and the taller boy had no choice but to match their action, standing up on his two feet. They flee from the abandoned egg tarts, leaving them cold and untouched. Oh, how much Kai wishes that he finished them all.

“What’s your name?”

“It’s Huening Kai,” Kai tries to be clear in the middle of catching his breath, “but you can call me _just_ Kai.”

“Okay, _just_ Kai,” he smiles, again, and Kai as well, feeling a peculiar substance in his stomach, again, “I’m Beomgyu.”

“That’s a pretty name.”

Kai instantly regrets what he said. He sounds like a virgin of relationship—not that he isn’t or doesn’t want to sound like one, it’s just he thinks he could’ve done a better job at phrasing it. The opinion is a fact, but it was too straightforward, and he doesn’t want Beomgyu to feel weirded out.

“Is it?” Beomgyu giggles, looking like he fathoms Kai’s blurting as a compliment, yet still craving for more explanation, “what makes you think that way?”

Since when did this turn into an essay quiz? Kai wants to drop dead on the spot.

“ _Beom_ is just changing one syllable away from _Bom_ , spring,” Kai doesn’t even know if that makes sense at all. At this point, he doesn’t care anyway—he spits everything rambling inside his mind out like there’s no tomorrow, “and you’re ...” he pauses, staring down at their intertwining fingers, “... _warm_.”

“ _Warm_ , huh?” rather than challenging, the tone sounds somewhat smitten, “what about summer then?”

“It’s not the _scorching hot_ kind of _warm_ ,” Kai objects, “more like an _assuring one_ , saying _it’s okay, everything’s going to be okay_.”

“Is that why you don’t question me—a stranger, grabbing your hand and pulling you up—taking you to an unknown stop, at all?”

“Look, the thing is, I didn’t even know your name,” Kai laughs. He finds it amusing, “it’s _painted_ , all over your face.”

Beomgyu stops when they arrive at Target. He fills the shopping cart with a bunch of tomatoes. Kai gulps at the mentioned price, but Beomgyu casually gives the clerk a credit card, to which Kai responds with a gasp.

“Your parents let you bring that around?”

“Yeah, but they don’t care about me anyway,” Beomgyu shrugs, “let’s go!”

Much to Kai's surprise, they head back to Yeonjun’s house. The ocean of people Kai stumbled upon earlier can’t no longer be seen in the yard. They probably got inside as the night gradually became colder and darker. Beomgyu seems to know what he’s doing. He walks up to one of the car parks nearby and Kai follows him closely from behind, gripping onto the bag of tomatoes.

“This is it,” Beomgyu cues, hands rubbing with each other, “it’s his car.”

“You sure?” Kai asks

“One hundred percent,” Beomgyu nods.

After making sure their surroundings are safe, they launch their secret weapon into the air. Beomgyu makes the first move—he crushes the round red thing with his firm grip, the water coming from the inside oozing as he throws it as hard as he can. The poor thing lands on the windshield, only to be accompanied by more and more of its kind. Some of them roll down into the hood, some barely stick onto the original place of its landing. Kai directs his attack to another part of the car. Beomgyu doesn’t seem to give any shit about how the owner of the car will go home, because he starts to murder the engine as well, hoping it will stop working.

They stare at each other as they realize the car is fully painted rouge, leaving almost no clean area. Beomgyu’s hands are stained red and so are Kai’s. Before he sees it coming, Beomgyu throws a tomato at him, coloring his chest area. Kai doesn’t waste any time to pay his revenge, aiming for the boy’s pretty face and shouting in victory when it doesn’t miss. The neighborhood soon changed into their own little battlefield, squashed tomatoes laying here and there. They sprint from each other like kindergarten kids, laugh echoing between the trees and buildings.

The chasing is all fun and games, but they finally get exhausted. They halt in the middle of the road for the sake of their respiratory system to be stable again. Beomgyu lies on his chest above the asphalt, meanwhile Kai still has some energy to merely prop on his knees.

Beomgyu finally rises after he stops panting. He makes his way towards Kai, and the target doesn’t seem to have any plan to go away. Beomgyu squishes his former rival’s cheeks with his slippery palms and the latter feels like he’s being thrown into cloud nine. He returns the gesture by placing his hands on the smaller boy’s waist, stealing a chance to smudge the dirt on his clothes, acquiring a playful squint for his cheeky action.

It doesn’t take long before their lips clash, bridge of their noses touching each other. They try to seek any comfort they can find in between every savoring. Beomgyu’s lips aren’t soft—in fact, they’re extremely dry. Kai can feel he’s bleeding here and there, but he didn’t mind. It’s Beomgyu. He tastes like raw tomato, tears, soil and steel, but that’s exactly why Kai is drawn into him. It just works. It’s what makes Beomgyu _Beomgyu_. It’s what ceases this scene memorable for the rest of Kai’s life.

When Kai’s eyes flutter open, those raven orbs are staring back at him, calmly absorbing like the sky above them. In all seriousness, they end up drowning in their own giggling and once again, wrapping each other with their arms.

—

“You’re a mess,” Soobin is more than perplexed when Kai finally sees him after the party is over, “what the hell happened?”

“You would never guess,” Kai lingers his arm around the older, “so … how is it going?”

Soobin shakes his head, his upper lip twitches in disappointment, “always try to see the positive side in everything! At least he remembers my name now.

“Does it mean we will still go to Yeonjun’s future parties?” Kai asks, his voice coming out shaky because of the held back excitement.

Soobin replies with a lifeless nod, “now, let’s talk about you. Why are your clothes so drenched?”

“Oh no! My car!” the frustrated shout can be heard from afar.

With his perfectly healthy eyes, Soobin can see the man’s car is totally ruined. He looks at the car, and then turns into Huening Kai. He did that several times until he’s completely certain that the boy standing in front of him is the cause of the shambles.

“You did not,” Soobin’s mouth is widely agape.

“Well,” Kai grins, hand gripping onto his freezing friend’s wrist, “let’s run for my life, shall we?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading until the end, I really appreciate it!


End file.
